The INAS Global Games is a

quadrennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

global, international

multi-sport event A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

organised by the

International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability INAS (International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability; originally called INAS-FMH, later INAS-FID, INAS and now as Virtus Sport) was established in 1986 by professionals in the Netherlands who were involved in sport an ...

(INAS). First organised in 2004, it is intended for elite competition in

disability sports Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are forms of adapted physical activities from existing able-bodied sports, while others have been specifically created for ...

for athletes with

intellectual disability Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signifi ...

and, since 2017,

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

and

down syndrome Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...

. It is the largest sporting event of its type. Athletes must have received classification from INAS to compete.

History

A precursor event was the World Games for Athletes with an Intellectual Disability held in 1989.Butler, Nick (2015-09-29)
Inas considering legal action after "collapse" of Global Games Organising Committee
Inside the Games. Retrieved 2019-09-21. The competition was discontinued following the integration of athletes with intellectual disabilities into the

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

programme in 1996, though renewed exclusion following disability fabrication at the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

led to the relaunch as the INAS Global Games. The first three INAS Global Games were hosted in Europe. The fourth edition in 2015 expanded to South America, though INAS were forced to take over organisational duties due to the collapse of the local organising committee. Australia won the hosting rights for the 2019 event, having led the medal rankings of the previous three. Initially the competition was seen as a specialist event by other

sports governing bodies A sports governing body is a sports organization that has a regulatory or sanctioning function. Sports governing bodies come in various forms and have a variety of regulatory functions. Examples of this can include disciplinary action for rule ...

, but the INAS

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

competitions are now recognised and sanctioned by the main global bodies for those disability sports.INAS Global Games recognised by ITTF
Paralympic (2019-01-10). Retrieved 2019-09-21. The games is separate from the INAS World Championships, which are a series of sport-specific championships.

Editions

Number of athletes at the 2019 Global Games (highest to lowest)

All-time medal table (2004 to 2019)

Virtus Americas Regional Games

Virtus Oceania Asia Games

Sports

References

{{Multi-sport events Disabled multi-sport events Recurring sporting events established in 2004